Chinese Authorities Make Arrests in Attempt to Prevent Pro-Democracy Campaigns on Mainland

BEIJING — The Chinese authorities, determined to prevent pro-democracy rallies in Hong Kong from spilling across the border into the mainland, have detained at least 10 people in recent days, including a group of artists who attended a poetry reading inspired by the protests in Hong Kong.

In all, human rights advocates say that more than 40 people across the country have been taken into police custody since a campaign of civil disobedience over the pace of democratization in Hong Kong began nearly two weeks ago. Some of those arrested have already been charged with “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” a charge that carries up to three years in jail.

The detention of several people whose only apparent crime was to attend a private poetry reading underscores the anxieties of Chinese leaders over the standoff in Hong Kong, the former British colony at the southern tip of China that enjoys more expansive liberties than the mainland.

Tensions are likely to remain high. On Thursday, Chinese activists on Twitter began circulating a call to converge on Tiananmen Square this weekend with umbrellas, the ubiquitous accessory and protest symbol adopted by the Hong Kong protesters.

The most recent arrests took place in and around Songzhuang, an artists’ enclave on the outskirts of the capital and the setting for an Oct. 2 poetry recital that drew the attention of security officials. According to several artists and lawyers for those detained, seven of those taken into police custody had attended the poetry event, including an art curator and a Chinese news assistant employed by a German newspaper.

Several people were detained when the police arrived to break up the gathering, while others were taken away the following day.

Among those arrested in recent days was Wang Zang, a poet and performance artist whose work is often politically provocative.

His wife, Wang Li, said he was probably singled out after posting on Twitter a photograph of himself, head shaved and holding out an umbrella, his middle finger raised in defiance. At his back was the national flag of Taiwan, the self-ruled island that China claims as its own.

By shaving his head, Mr. Wang was also casting his lot with several other mainland activists, many of them also detained in recent days, who cut off their hair as a gesture of solidarity with the movement in Hong Kong.

In a group chat on the popular WeChat messaging service, friends of the detained artists said they were especially worried about Mr. Wang because of his previous work. In 2013, Mr. Wang had scrawled, “Principal, leave the school kids alone — get a room with me” on his naked body to protest a sexual abuse scandal involving a primary school principal accused of raping six female students.

In a phone interview, Sui Muqing, his lawyer, said he thought the authorities were not inclined to show leniency this time. “He has been participating in grass-roots rights defense campaigns in a very high-profile way,” Mr. Sui said.

Mr. Wang’s wife said about a dozen police officers searched the family’s apartment and seized his computer, documents, and the flag and umbrella he displayed in the photo he had posted on social media. “They were ferocious and searched every corner of my home,” she said by telephone.

On Wednesday, Ms. Wang said she and her year-old daughter were held at the Songzhuang police station for nine hours without food and water. She said her daughter was bruised during a scuffle with the police, who she said used abusive language. A man who picked up the phone at the Songzhuang police station Thursday declined to comment on Ms. Wang’s allegations.

Domestic security agents, she said, have been harassing the couple for years, forcing them to move eight times. “Before they never had any concrete reason to take him away,” she said. “This time they’ve seized an opportunity.”

Among the others detained in recent days are Lu Shang and Zhui Hun, both artists. According to friends, the two did not attend the poetry reading but were active on social media in an effort to publicize the detentions of those who did. As of Thursday evening, the two remained in police custody.

Calls to the Beijing No. 1 Police Detention Center, where many of the detainees are being held, rang unanswered Thursday evening.